DATELINE: Boscobel WI, 28 July 2006

Got back late yesterday after "spending" the day at Six Flags with Kevin. I say "spending," because I managed to burn out my cellphone battery on Enterra business, plus the Lou Dobbs Show calls, which gives you a sense of why it's hard for me to figure out when to actually put in for vacation.

Ah well. Kevin was understanding (although the jokes about Dad "ignoring us and always talking on his damn cellphone" begin to sting after a while), and I did what any parent does in such situations: I bribed him with a Robin T-shirt and bobblehead doll.

My allergies are killing me right now. Took all I could muster to do this 15-minute over-the-phone with Voice of America on the question of the emerging "anti-Chinese axis" of America, India and Japan (oh yeah, I really see that one working!).

Naturally, I was brought on for my usual counter-intuitive take on the subject (sad to say, I appear to be the only strategic thinker of note who considers this axis complete bullshit doomed to fail in its intent, but there you have the state of my field right now--more divorced from economic reality than ever).

Kinda neat to do the interview using my Dad's old office phone and sitting in his Lazyboy, looking out the window to the Koeinig house and my Grandpa's old place (two lawns I mowed for years). Very nostalgic.

Dad would have liked it.